Criminal Record Checks for Employment in Ontario: When They're Allowed

Many Ontario employers ask job applicants to agree to a criminal record check before finalizing a hiring decision. For roles that involve handling money, working with vulnerable people, or driving on the job, this can feel like an obvious and reasonable step.

What is less obvious is that Ontario's human rights law puts real limits on what an employer can ask for and how it can be used. Get it wrong, and a rejected applicant may have grounds to complain — even where the employer thought it was simply being careful.

This article walks through why employers request these checks, what the law actually protects, and how to build a screening process that holds up.

Why Employers Ask for a Criminal Record Check

Employers most often request a record check for roles where trust is central to the job:

• Handling client money, payroll, or company banking
• Working alone with children, seniors, or other vulnerable people
• Driving a company vehicle or operating heavy equipment
• Having unsupervised access to a client's home, business, or confidential records
• Meeting a licensing, insurance, or client-contract requirement tied to the role

The check becomes riskier to justify the further it drifts from these kinds of job duties — a record check for a purely administrative role with no financial, safety, or vulnerable-person component is harder to defend if challenged.

What the Human Rights Code Actually Protects

Ontario's Human Rights Code prohibits discrimination in employment on a number of protected grounds. One of them is often summarized as "record of offences" — but the protection is narrower than most people assume.

In general terms, it protects applicants from being treated adversely because of a provincial offence or a criminal conviction for which a pardon (record suspension) has been granted — not every item that could ever appear on a background check, and not an unresolved charge.

That distinction matters in practice:

• Refusing to hire someone solely because of a provincial offence, or a conviction that has been pardoned, risks a human rights complaint.
• An unpardoned criminal conviction that is genuinely relevant to the job is generally treated differently — but "relevant to the job" is a fact-specific judgment call, not a blanket licence to reject any applicant with any record.

This is a nuanced area of law. If a specific applicant's history raises a real question, that is a conversation for a lawyer before a final decision is made — not a policy to guess at.

The Main Types of Record Checks

The right level of check should match the actual duties of the role — not be applied as a one-size-fits-all step for every hire.

Requesting Checks the Right Way

• [ ] Get informed, meaningful consent — tell the applicant what is being checked and why, consistent with Ontario's obligations under federal privacy law
• [ ] Apply the same policy consistently to everyone being considered for the same role
• [ ] Request only the type of check that is genuinely tied to the position's duties
• [ ] Consider timing the request later in the process, once the rest of the candidate's fit has already been assessed
• [ ] Have a clear, written policy so decisions aren't made ad hoc, candidate by candidate

Handling a "Hit" Responsibly

Finding something on a record check is not, by itself, the end of the analysis. A defensible process generally:

1. Looks at the nature of the offence and how closely it relates to the job's actual duties
2. Considers how long ago it occurred and what has changed since
3. Gives the applicant a fair chance to provide context before a final decision, where practical
4. Documents the reasoning behind the decision, in case it is ever questioned

An automatic disqualification rule — reject anyone with any record, regardless of relevance — is exactly the kind of blunt policy that tends to attract human rights scrutiny.

Frequently asked questions